


Devotion

by emirrart



Series: Feeding the Docks [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Claude is slimy, Everyone Is Gay, M/M, Nostalgia, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 22:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14680362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emirrart/pseuds/emirrart
Summary: My own characters' first appearance in my written stuff :)





	Devotion

Childishly dangling his lanky legs over the edge of the sodden dock and picking at pieces of cracked wood with his nail, Claude allowed all of his daily stresses to melt away into the calming waters below him. He's here. He's safe. He's with Oscar, his most precious friend. They're together.

Oscar lazily rocked his head, allowing his long hair to gently sway in the wind. Behind the two gentlemen, the light breeze was pulling up leaves from the shore in a loose, motherly grasp and swaying them as if they were babes to be put to sleep, and laying them back down on the harsh, rocky beach as if it were their crib.

"Do you remember when we came here as boys?" Claude gently asks, absentmindedly chewing his already dangerously short nails and staring out into the nostalgia-soaked mountains. The massive rocky cliffs towering over the wintry lake and casting a gloomy shade beneath them, causing the lake to have a cryptic murkiness about it.

Oscar simply stared across the lake, seemingly observing a lone swan contrasting with the everlasting green around it.

Claude responded with a cantankerous huff and muttered, "Well, I have fond memories of it."

The two men sat quietly for a short while, Claude breathing in long drags of the soft, cold air, letting it overtake his smoky tobacco-spoiled lungs. The air had the familiar smell of the aftermath of a gentle downpour - yet there were no signs of any other weather conditions than foggy gloom ever existing here.

Claude broke the silence, "Don't you remember our celebration here?"

Oscar didn't respond.

"It was just the two of us. Everyone else was either still doing exams or already on holiday." He continued. "I remember us sitting in this exact spot when-"

He stopped himself, gently pressing a finger to his lower lip, blushing slightly and allowing himself a guilty, embarrassed smile.

"You frightened me so much that I fell into the water, didn't I?" He chuckled, briefly remembering the confusion and shock crashing over him more sharply than the actual water had done, as the warm summer waves lapped at his body.

He had never disliked what Oscar had done, and frequently considered asking him to do it again.

The sandy-haired man turned to his closest friend, a loving grin splitting his cheeks and brightening his eyes with a delightful, angelic gleam. He reached over and grasped Oscar's cold hand carefully in both of his own.

"You know, I'm sorry for everything that's happened since then. I know you'd missed me when I was at Oxford, and I'm sorry the only communication I could offer was a half-hearted letter home." His face twisted as a swift pang of pain hit his heart. "I never thought that you would get engaged."

The silence that followed was so thick and deafening that even if you chewed through like a rat with a steak for hours on end, you would still be met with such a quiet atmosphere that you would question as to whether your ears were still able to function.

"I know you only proposed to her because you managed to bed her, and she ended up carrying your child, but it still hurt that you hadn't told me sooner." He sadly chuckled, "Remember what Henry Wotton said: Never marry, men do it because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed. I don't think that even remotely relates to you or your Martha, Oscar! You are both far too young to be so cynical of life!"

He laughed heartily for a minute or two.

"And besides, I think your Martha was always curious for that Suzanna, my dear boy!" He continued to laugh, until he slowly leant to Oscar's ear.

"I know that truly your whole heart belongs to me." He smiled, and pulled Oscar's hand toward his chest, allowing him to feel his heartbeat as he lovingly stared into Oscar's glossy eyes.

Oscar suddenly fell back, his skull cracking against the rotting wood with a horrible crunch. His lengthy hair cascaded around him, drenched with dried blood, which had hardened the locks into gory spikes sharp enough to use as needles. Glazed eyes stared up at the greying sky, his face displaying an expression so pained that even the look of a child who had just lost their mother could not compare, his mouth agape in a silent cry.

Claude chuckled deeply. "I suppose you're right. We had better get it over with."

Pulling himself up with a groan, Claude heard the scream of a nearby swan.

Oscar's body was dragged to its pathetic feet, clutched from behind by Claude's strong arm as a rope was tied tightly around the two, irritating the gaping hole in its chest, displaying its shattered ribcage and the mutilated spot where its heart should have been.

Claude struggled to the very edge of the dock, smiled one last time and claimed:

"Those who would not go so far to protect their own lover deserve no pity, in this world or the next. If they have no devotion for their own soul, or the soul of their beloved, then they're better off alone, rotting in a ditch."

He threw his head to the sky and yelled:

"God, I am sinless. I have done the right thing, and saved my love from his pitiful future, and will now accept my own end and ascend to your holy garden to reside with you and my love by my side forever and always."

And with that, the two hideous attempts of being even remnants of a human were tossed into the barren lake.


End file.
